Questions answered

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Content

1. What is the difference between your free monthly Trend Briefings and your Premium Service?

Our free monthly Trend Briefings are obviously only the tip of the iceberg. While they bring you one new trend a month, our Premium Service gives you access to a full overview of all the trends we're spotting and tracking, must-see examples from brands across the world, PDF/PowerPoint reports focusing on the impact of the most important trends on key B2C industries and a Tips section that helps you turn all this information into profitable innovations.

That's not to mention the 2012 Trend report (and the 2013 Trend Report, which will be sent to you in November 2012), sent to you in both printed and PowerPoint/PDF format!
In a nutshell, the Premium Service is ideal for professionals who need a complete and constantly updated overview of all trends, insights and related innovations that matters in the consumer arena today and in the next 12-18 months. In fact if, after purchasing, you feel that Premium's content isn't what you need, we'll refund you in full.
For a more comprehensive overview, please check the full table of contents.

2. What can I use your Premium Service for?

People use the Premium Service for a variety of different reasons, but our aim is always the same: to give you the insights and examples that will help you, your team and your brand to come up with profitable new goods, services and experiences for (or even better, with) your customers:

1. The Annual Trend Report provides crucial insights into where consumers around the world will be headed over the forthcoming 12 months; helping you understand, innovate and serve them.
   
   Please note: if you purchase Premium access today, you will gain access to both the 2012 AND the 2013 Trend Report (upon its release in November 2012)! Instantly download the 2012 Trend Report in PowerPoint and PDF (and as a bonus, you will also receive an exclusive printed edition, delivered straight to your door), and look out for the 2013 Trend Report coming your way in November 2012!
   
2. The Trend Database, packed full of 5,000+ examples from brands around the globe, provides tangible manifestations of how all our trends are being implemented – and this is kept right up-to-date with up to 200 new examples added each month (these updates are also provided in PowerPoint format, making it easier for you to present and share with colleagues). Also look out for our Trend Handouts, interactive PDFs that clearly and concisely outline and illustrate every trend in the database – helping keep you in the know, in a printable and easy-to-digest format.
   
   
3. Our Industry Trend Reports section provide you with knowledge and insights related to how our trends impact your industry or sector, giving you instant access to the best industry examples around, as well as the opportunities they may offer you. They are available both in PDF and PowerPoint formats.
   
   
4. Our Tips section helps you to understand how to actually apply trends and insights within your organization.

In fact, why not take a look at our Testimonials page, and see how other brands use our Premium Service?

3. What is your methodology (and provenance)?

The dedicated trendwatching.com Premium team scans up to 300 business sources on a daily basis, tracking both the latest consumer trends and spotting innovations from brands that are already successfully applying these trends,across all major industries.

The team also curates the contributions from our 800+ spotters in more than 100 countries.

Every trend and related innovation ends up in our Trend Database that features all our trends, 5,000+ examples and industry-specific reports, only accessible to Premium clients.

And we've been going at this (successfully, may we add ;-) for a long time now: our methodology has been fine-tuned for more than 10 years now, while we've managed to continuously grow the number of subscribers to our free content and the number of paying clients. All through word of mouth from satisfied customers. Last but not least, to add some mainstream media credibility to our claims: our trend thinking gets picked up by major international publications such as the New York Times, The Economist and CNN to name just a few (see our In the Media page here for more).

4. Which trends are covered by your Premium Service?

We focus exclusively on consumer trends; insights on how consumer behaviour and consumer preferences are changing, and how to prepare for, or better, benefit as a brand from these changes. How do we actually define a consumer trend? We came up with this years ago (and it still holds pretty well):

"A novel manifestation of something that has unlocked or serviced an existing (and hardly ever changing) consumer need*, desire, want, or value."

The Trend Database and Trend Reports cover all our consumer trends and feature the examples we're spotting and tracking from B2C brands. This currently means dozens of trends, 5,000+ examples from brands around the world already capitalizing on these trends, as well as reports outlining how our trends impact your industry. We even give you advice on how to come-up with your own consumer trends and innovations in the Tips section.

Everything we offer is continuously updated and available in various formats to give you all the tools you need to apply our trend content in every possible way.

For a comprehensive overview, please check the full table of contents.

5. Is my industry covered?

Firstly, the Trend Database and Trend Reports deal with important changes in consumer needs and wants. As those needs and wants are increasingly global, and can be applied across all industries, the database and reports are relevant to any brand looking to innovate in the B2C arena, in any consumer society in the world.

Furthermore, the database lets you instantly access examples for specific industries and sectors (to name just a few: automotive, food & beverage, IT, transportation, hospitality, telecom, fashion, architecture, electronics, finance, utilities, retail, media & entertainment and advertising). Last but not least, our Premium Service also includes 15(!) industry-specific PowerPoint reports. See more detail here.

Rest assured: leading brands from every possible B2C industry, around the world, from Microsoft to PepsiCo to Vodafone to boutique agencies to ambitious start-ups, already have access to our Premium Service, and find the content very applicable.

6. Is my region covered? And what languages does it come in?

The Trend Database and Annual Trend Reports deal with important changes in consumer needs and wants. Those needs and wants are increasingly global, so the database and reports are relevant to any brand looking to innovate in the B2C arena, in any consumer society in the world.

The examples that we spot (which form a crucial part of the database, Annual Trend Reports, Industry Reports and updates) are derived from a large and varied pool of international and national business sources. To ensure that our product is comprehensive and representative of consumer trends all over the whole world, we do not focus on specific countries or regions.

Premium is currently available in English only.

7. Who else is buying?

trendwatching.com's consumers trends are truly global in nature, they are internationally sourced and cover the wants and needs of consumers all over the world, who buy and interact with businesses from every industry out there. Therefore, our client base is just as varied. To give you a snapshot: 

Roughly 28% of Premium clients are based in the US/Canada, 40% in Europe (including Turkey and Russia), 15% in Asia-Pacific, and 17% in South America, the Middle East and (South) Africa. They come from a wide range of industries, here are just a few examples: automotive, nonprofit, consumer electronics, hospitality, fashion, marketing and retail. 

Again, the size of business buying ranges from multi-national giants such as Coca-Cola, Samsung, InterContinental Hotels, Google and Omnicom to small regional players, boutique agencies and start-ups like Keepio, Branward Media, Salewa, Geist and 31st Second.
See what they are saying about us here.

Usage

8. What kind of access and usage will I get, and for how long?

If you order our Premium Service, you will instantly* receive log-in details that give you access to the Premium section on the trendwatching.com website.

Once logged in, you'll have instant access to our (constantly updated) Trend Database, Industry Trend Reports and of course the 2012 Trend Report* (in PowerPoint, PDF and as an exclusive printed edition). If you order now you will receive access until May 2013.

* Please note you will also gain access to the 2013 Trend Report upon its release in November 2012.
In regards to usage, Premium content is designed to be flexible, that's why we provide our all our reports and examples in the online database in PowerPoint (and often PDF) format, too – easy for you to amend, use, incorporate and share.

* If you choose to pay by invoice, we can only give you access the moment your payment has been received.

9. Can my colleagues or team use the Premium Service too?

Here's how it works: Premium's Trend Reports and database are for internal use, i.e. for you and your team (up to four other team members). If a colleague from another department, branch, or country needs access as well, we expect him or her to purchase his or her own Premium membership. To ensure fair use, we monitor IP addresses associated with each log-in session to Premium content.

We have purposefully kept access very affordable, so individuals at both small and large organizations will be able to afford their own access. We ask you to respect this 'honor' system, as the alternative would be a very expensive licensing system, pushing up the price of the Premium Service into the thousands of euros, dollars or pounds for everyone.

Oh, and to further state the obvious: you cannot repackage/resell the reports without our permission.
If you have any questions about how to purchase additional memberships, or a more comprehensive corporate license, just email Andrea Thorn, our Head of Client Services, at andrea@trendwatching.com.

10. Can I change, adjust or (internally) incorporate Premium's content?

Yes, you can. In fact, we hope you will! The Premium content that we provide is ready for you to use ‘as is' but has also been specifically designed to offer you flexibility – it can be incorporated, amended, tweaked and reshuffled.

For example, not only do you receive our 2012 Trend Report* in a printed and PDF version, but also in a fully editable PowerPoint format, leaving it up to you if you want to use/incorporate our content, or adjust it to your own specific needs concerning fonts/visuals/texts/headers and so on. Equally, all examples and industry-specific reports and updates are published in PowerPoint to allow similar ease of use.

* Please note you will also gain access to the 2013 Trend Report upon its release in November 2012

11. Can I distribute Premium content outside my office/company?

If you're part of an agency or consulting firm, we're more than happy for you to present parts of Premium's content to your clients, but only if you always state the source ("trendwatching.com/premium"); both verbally and written (the latter by always incorporating trendwatching.com as a source on slides, in PDFs, videos and so on).

However, we hope you understand that you can never resell or repackage the reports (slides, texts and videos) in any possible way without our written consent. The same goes for presenting our content to an external, paying audience (industry conferences, paid workshops etc.).

12. What if I lose my Premium login details?

Just email your details to Andrea Thorn, our Head of Client Services, at andrea@trendwatching.com, and she'll help you out.

Pricing & terms of use

13. How much does the Premium Service cost?

We're all running a tight ship these days, so you'll be happy to know that we've kept things very affordable: the all-inclusive price of the Premium Service is only $1,849 / €1,349 / £1,149. This all-in price includes instant access to the 2012 Trend Report AND 2013 Trend Report (upon it’s release in November 2012) and access to the ever-growing Trend Database until May 2013. There are no other costs involved!

And yes, this is significantly less than most trend database and reports out there, which are often in the thousands of dollars/euros/pounds - but we enjoy a bit of trend democratization ;-)

14. Will I be able to get a refund if the Premium Service doesn't meet my expectations?

Yes! If you feel Premium's database and report really don't deliver on what we've been promising, we'll offer a refund.

However, to avoid any disappointment, we kindly ask you to carefully review our extensive overview of what you'll be purchasing.

To get a good feel for Premium's tone of voice, focus and visuals, please check out our monthly Trend Briefings. Rest assured that if you enjoy our briefings you will also enjoy our much more extensive Premium Service.

If you have any doubts, please email Andrea Thorn, our Head of Client Services. She will definitely be able to tell you if the Premium Service is 'for you' or not!

15. Do you offer discounts to non-profits or universities?

We only have a few Premium memberships available at a discounted price for established / worthy charities, and non-commercial educational institutions. To apply for a discount (please understand we can't guarantee anything), email Andrea Thorn, our Head of Client Services, at andrea@trendwatching.com.

16. Do I officially subscribe to the Premium Service?

Premium is not an official 'subscription' service: Purchasing access to our Premium Service means you buy yourself Trend Reports and access to our ever-growing Trend Database until May 2013. We charge a one-time, all-inclusive $1,849 / €1,349 / £1,149 for this.

We hope you understand that an official subscription service would require a different payment structure, including much higher administrative costs, which in turn would mean we would have to increase prices for everyone. It is therefore not possible to buy just the 2012 or 2013 Trend Report, or just one month (or a few months) of access to our database.